Tia Encarna’s tale, from Once upon a Madhouse

I wrote Once Upon a Madhouse in Spanish. In a section of the book there’s the account of an indomitable old widow who, after twenty years, still mourns the departure of her companion: an army sergeant killed in an act of service.

Her nephew discovers the truth behind the sergeant’s heroic death. When a drunken captain and his mount--also drunk after polishing two buckets of wine--cause a commotion on the officer’s mess, the frightened staff calls the sergeant on duty. Failing to convince the rider to dismount his sloshed mount, the sergeant attempts to maneuver the pair down a rickety staircase when the horse slips a hoof and causes the sergeant death.

In my army days, I learned of an unlikely inmate that had languished in the barrack’s stocks for several years: a mule guilty of killing an officer with a kick. This gave me the idea for the plot point.

As I translated Once upon a Madhouse into English I checked to ascertain if the mule’s affair was an isolated case and discovered other four-legged criminals had shared similar fates.

On an EFE dispatch dated October 24, 2004 I found that a Rottweiller dog was arrested by the police and thrown in the slammer after attacking a passer-by. Police Colonel Rodrigo Tamayo, head of the judiciary police of Pichichia province, Quito, Ecuador, confirmed that ‘Toby’ is in custody but well, receiving the same treatment of other inmates with visiting hours, exercise and adequate diet, although his cell is a box on the prison’s exercise yard.

From an article by Anxel Vence, a journalist at El Faro Gallego, I learned that in 1999 the mayor of Baiona ordered a cow named ‘Pinta’ to be placed under arrest after being caught in fraganti chomping the lush grass of the municipal gardens. Only after several years of trials did the cow’s defense lawyers managed ‘Pinta’s release.

There’s a rumor to the effect that after a recruit’s accidental death by drowning, the army court-martialed the culprit: a pond. Alas, I’ve not been able to substantiate such a many splendored claim.